Charlotte: Johnson - Thursday media visit, part 1

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE'S IMPALA SS met with media and
discussed the racing in the Coca-Cola 600, his analysis of the season,
the ongoing challenge of the new race car, testing, boxing with Humpy
Wheeler, rear housing rules, his opinion on ...

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE'S IMPALA SS met with media and
discussed the racing in the Coca-Cola 600, his analysis of the season,
the ongoing challenge of the new race car, testing, boxing with Humpy
Wheeler, rear housing rules, his opinion on having a traveling safety
crew, his personal driving style, and more.

LAST YEAR'S COCA-COLA 600 WAS A WEIRD GAS-MILEAGE RACE. DO YOU EVER
LOOK BACK AT THE STRATEGY TEAMS EMPLOYED AND WHAT YOU DID IN THAT EVENT?
"If I remember right, we weren't even close. We were up front
racing for the win and led a lot at the end, and it's one of those
things that if you're going to save fuel, you've got to
decide early and hope that it works out and that everything plays into
your hand. That was the strategy that Casey (Mears) and those guys put
together and they barely made it, but it worked out. We have a couple of
those take place every year and it's tough to win in this sport.
You need all elements. And if it's on fuel mileage, so be it. This
race has a history of being kind of weird. We've had up to 20-plus
wrecks or cautions or whatever it was, tire issues, and I've seen
it all in just the few years I've been in this sport. I'm
going to buckle in and know that anything can happen over the course of
the night.

TALK ABOUT THE EBB AND FLOW OF 400 LAPS HERE, 600 MILES. THE SUN GOES
DOWN AND THE TRACK CHANGES. YOU GET TIRED.
"It is a long day. It's really amazing how fast it goes by
when you're inside the car. For whatever reason, the laps click off
and the time goes by and before you know it, you're in the closing
laps of the race. Luckily for us, it goes that way. But there are a lot
of elements to deal with. You're not always going to have track
position on your side. That's something you really focus on for a
400-mile race. Here, track position is more important than it's
ever been, but you're not going to have it. You're going to
have a lot of strategy coming into play and you need to be smart.
It's tough enough to run 500 miles at a track. The real goal is to
run all 600. You've got to be smart and take care of your stuff all
night long and then race at the end for the win."

HOW DO YOU MENTALLY PREPARE YOURSELF FOR THE NEXT STEP IN THE SEASON LIKE
GETTING INTO THE CHASE?
"I really think the crunch is now coming on all the teams that are
around that 12th position in points. We're in a decent spot. But
still, there are a lot of races and a lot that can take place. We need to
be smart and make sure that we're collecting points and climbing up
the ladder and separating ourselves from that 12th place position. The
goal right now is to make sure that you transfer into the Chase and
ideally, to not go into Richmond with everything on the line. Hopefully
you can be mathematically locked in and roll in from there. After I get
those basics out of the way, I look at winning races and winning poles.

"That's what it's all about. We've been close in
Texas on a big track. We had a decent performance in the All-Star event.
We've been making gains and we're getting smarter each week.
I feel we'll be very competitive on the short tracks like
we've shown this year, but we still have a little bit of work to do
on the bigger tracks."

DO YOU BREAK THE SEASON INTO SEGMENTS?
"I haven't yet. But I guess if I really think about it, I
probably should. The Chase is obviously one segment and before the season
starts, I guess I look at it in two segments: transferring and then
racing for the championship. But as time goes on, there really is a third
step there where you need to worry about that 12th position in points and
focus more on the last eight or 10 races leading into the Richmond event
before the Chase starts."

DO YOU FEEL FORTUNATE TO BE WHERE YOU ARE IN POINTS, CONSIDERING SOME OF
THE THINGS THAT HAVEN'T GONE THE WAY YOU WANTED? AND DO YOU FEEL
LIKE NOW THIS IS THE PLACE WHERE YOU CAN START GETTING ON A SERIOUS RUN
OF WINNING RACES?
"We hope to get on that run. We've had a couple of races
where we were caught up and stuff, but in general we've been
running. We've haven't really been taken out of races and
crashes, so where we are, is where we are. We're not real happy
being where we're at. It hasn't been a horrible start to the
season. We've won an event and we're in a decent spot in the
points. But it's in our minds that we need to keep developing our
stuff and get a little better. Hopefully we'll get on a tear and
win a bunch of races."

GIVEN HOW WEATHER-SENSITIVE THIS TRACK IS, DOES THAT PUT MORE OF A
PREMIUM ON QUALIFYING TONIGHT?
"The car in traffic is pretty tough to drive. And track position is
more important than it's ever been. The track itself, I'd
have to say that during the All-Star event, didn't change as much
as I expected it to. I'm not sure if that's just the track or
the tire combination or if it's this car. We have knowledge from
the past but it's with a different car, a different tire, and a
different situation. So we're all still learning this and I think
we'll be smarter this week than we were last (week). But in the
past when we ran here with the old car on the old surface, literally to
the hour of the evening, we knew what adjustment we needed to make
because we had things figured out so well. We're trying to get back
to that spot right now in knowing exactly what you need for every segment
of this race."

HOW DO YOU VIEW HUMPY WHEELER'S LEGACY IN THIS SPORT?
"Oh, he's done so much for our sport and has really been the
ultimate promoter. I just can't thank him enough for what
he's done for our sport and the positive impact he has left in it
(by being) the generous and gracious man that he's been.
We're sure going to miss him in that role."

ARE YOU SURPRISED AT ALL BY THE ABRUPTNESS OF HIS DEPARTURE?
"The abruptness of it has caught a lot of us off-guard".
Something like that, you usually know a little bit further in advance and
there is some type of almost farewell tour for that matter. So when you
hear about it a few days before the 600, it certainly caught me
off-guard."

WHAT IS THE CRAZIEST THING YOU'VE EVER SEEN HUMPY WHEELER DO?
"I got into a boxing ring with him when I first moved to North
Carolina. It was at the gym and he's a Golden Gloves boxer. We were
in the racquetball courts, actually and he has me punching the wall and
wearing my arms out, actually. And then as we squared off and as we were
kind of fake boxing, he lands a couple of punches on me and I'm
like, man, he's punching me. So I swing back a couple of times and
he's like all right, there we go. Now I'm getting that fire
in you. And he would tell me, like all right, you're gloves are too
low and I'm going to hit you in the head. I'd hear him say
it, and sure enough, he'd hit me in the head (laughs). And
I'm like, all right, so I put my hands up to block my head and it
was too high, and he'd hit me in the stomach. So, I never thought
that I would be in a position to punch each other. But it was a lot of
fun and he's quite an athlete."

SO HOW OLD WAS HUMPY THEN?
"That was probably in 2000, I'd say. 1999 or 2000 when I
first got back here."

DID YOU THINK YOU WERE GOING TO TAKE IT EASY ON HIM?
"Yeah, I thought I was going to take it easy on him, one, and two,
I was afraid to hit him. But he hit me pretty hard and just out of being
punched, I reacted and hit him back pretty good. And he's like, all
right, there we go. There's a little fire. That's what
I'm looking for. It was just such an odd thing to be sitting there
punching Humpy Wheeler."

HUMPY SAYS HE'S NOT RETIRING, JUST SIMPLY LEAVING. WHERE WOULD YOU
LIKE TO SEE HIM IF HE IS INVOLVED IN NASCAR?
"I can see him in a lot of roles. He's been a big part of the
Charlotte community from a fund-raising standpoint and a business
standpoint. It's hard to think of him not in Motorsports. But with
all that's going on in the area, we also have the NASCAR Hall of
Fame and all that we have, I can see Humpy Wheeler easily landing in some
capacity somewhere within the racing community. He's done so much
and has been such a part of it, I'd hate to see him not in the
community."

REGARDING THE MEMO ABOUT THE REAR HOUSING, HOW WILL THAT AFFECT THE
RACING AND YOUR DRIVING?
"From where we are, I don't think the rule is changing
anything we've been doing. We were kind of at that mark. Here in
the last two or three weeks, we've seen some cars really, really
yawed out. I think that rule is really going to affect maybe the No. 77,
maybe the Red Bull cars and a few other guys who really had the car
twisted up. I think the new rule is putting everybody back to where we
are."

IS THERE ANY CONSOLATION TO HAVING A DATA BASE THAT DOESN'T WORK?
"Yeah, in a lot of ways we know what adjustments work and what
don't work and the cars react to adjustments much differently than
the other car. So we've learned a lot of things not to do and
we're still so excited to find that big thing that we need to
do."

IT WOULD BE HELPFUL TO GET TO THE CHASE AND KNOW WHAT NOT TO TRY
"That's very true. The encouraging thing is in short tracks
it's worked as we thought it would last year and we've been
able to perform and run well there. The big tracks, we're getting
closer. A lot of guys had their cars twisted up early in the season and
now we have a rule that's going to change that and a lot of people
are catching up to that. So there are certainly some quirks to this thing
that we just need to find the right areas to mess with. And we're
getting smarter. It hasn't shown yet, but Darlington was a really
good race weekend for us. We learned a lot about the car. We learned a
lot about the front end of our car and how to improve that and make that
better. And then last week, we had the front end working so well that we
needed to go to the back of the car to get it back in the track. I think
we made some good changes from the All-Star race to this race to now have
the back of the car keep up with the front of the car. So hopefully
we're on to something here and we've had a good two or three
weeks that will bring the car up to speed."

ONE OF THE BIGGEST COMPLAINTS IS THAT THERE AREN'T ANY AREAS TO
MESS WITH TO HAVE THE KIND OF RACING THE PEOPLE WANT TO SEE. ARE THERE
AREAS YOU CAN STILL TINKER WITH THAT WILL GET US BACK TO THAT?
"We thought there wasn't anywhere to look. And then (laughs)
the No. 99 (Carl Edwards) shows up at the start of the season and his car
is twisted. And we're like, how in the world does that happen? And
then it's grown to what it is now and cars are literally cruising
down the road at 30 or 40 degrees you know, dead sideways. They're
not straight. So there are areas to mess with and NASCAR has done a great
job of trying to keep the quality in car. But we have lost a lot of
downforce in the cars and that's been the hardest problem in
traffic. Especially on the fast tracks, you just don't have the
stability in the car to commit to the throttle and to carry the speed
that you need to pass someone. And that's what led these teams to
twisting the cars because as you turn the car sideways, it puts the wing
out into the wind and it also puts the side of the car in the wind and
creates a lot of downforce and a lot of side force and brings stability
back.

"It's a different animal and we're learning and I have
to keep reminding myself that this is the first year for these cars on
big tracks and last year was a big learning experience with the car on
the short tracks and that's what this year is for the
1.5-miles."

ON TESTING AT NASHVILLE AT KENTUCKY
"At Kentucky, the track keeps seeping water so we haven't had
a chance to really run there. We sat there and watched the water run down
the track a few times."

SO HOW IMPORTANT IS THIS WEEK? IS IT GOING TO DETERMINE IF YOU NEED TO DO
MORE TESTING AT SOME OF THESE BIGGER TRACKS?
"We have a lot of testing still ahead of us, from road course to
short track stuff getting ready for Loudon and big track stuff. We want
to be right in the Chase and whatever we have to do between now and then
(is what we'll do). One, I want to make the Chase, and two, two be
as strong as we can in the Chase, and we're going to do it."